The present invention relates to a new and improved apparatus for replenishing or replacing supply rolls of web on a web processing machine. The apparatus of the invention replaces exhausted rolls of web with a new roll of web substantially automatically.
In the past in web processing machines such as tenter frames, open width dyeing of fabrics or webs, singers, dryers, or the like, whenever the supply of web to the processing machine ran out or became exhausted it was necessary for the operator to stop the machine, grasp the tail end of the exhausted web and to being it together manually with the head end of a new supply roll and to sew the two ends together, after trimming the excess fabric from the seam area and then to restart the processing machine.
It has been necessary for the operator to be very skillful in matching up the edges of the fabric or webs which could be over sixty inches in width. This required substantial skill in the operator and a great amount of machine downtime while the operator carefully matched the edges of tee fabric and carefully sewed the two pieces of fabric together before resuming the operation of the fabric processing machine. The excessive downtime often resulted in over-processing of the fabric while it is stopped awaiting the replenishment causing a waste of the overprocessed material.